US2014282014A1PendingUtilityA1
Presenting snapshots of plug-in content in user interfaces

Individually held — no corporate assignee on recordPriority: Mar 14, 2013Filed: Mar 14, 2013Published: Sep 18, 2014
Est. expiryMar 14, 2033(~6.7 yrs left)· nominal 20-yr term from priority
Inventors:Jonathan J. Lee Maciej Stachowiak
G06F 9/44526G06F 16/9577G06F 3/048
PatentIndex Score
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References
Claims
Abstract

Presenting snap-shots of plug-in content in user interfaces. Input to present a user interface that includes content obtained by executing a plug-in is received. In response, the plug-in is executed to obtain the content. An image representative of the content is identified. Then, the execution of the plug-in is terminated, and the image representative of the content is displayed in the user interface. In the user interface, an object selectable to present the content obtained by executing the plug-in is displayed. When a selection of the object is received, the execution of the plug-in is re-instantiated to obtain the content, and the content is displayed in the user interface in place of the image.
Claims

exact text as granted — not AI-modified
What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving input to present a user interface that includes content obtained by executing a computer software application;   in response to receiving the input:
 executing the computer software application to obtain the content, 
 identifying, from the content, an image representative of the content, and 
 terminating an execution of the computer software application upon identifying the image representative of the content; and 
   displaying, in the user interface, the image representative of the content.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 displaying, in the user interface, an object selectable to present the content obtained by executing the computer software application;   receiving a selection of the object; and   in response to receiving the selection of the object:
 re-instantiating the execution of the computer software application to obtain the content, and 
 displaying the obtained content in the user interface in place of the image. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein executing the computer software application to obtain the content comprises:
 determining execution parameters of the computer software application at a time of executing the computer software application; and   storing the execution parameters, and   wherein re-instantiating the execution of the computer software application to obtain the content comprises executing the computer software application using the execution parameters.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 in response to receiving the selection of the object, storing an identity of the computer software application;   receiving a subsequent input to present a different user interface that includes different content obtained by executing the computer software application;   automatically and without user intervention, executing the computer software application to obtain the different content; and   displaying the different content in the different user interface.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 determining, at a time instant, that a period of time that has elapsed from a time of storing the identity of the computer software application to the time instant is greater than a threshold period; and   in response to determining that the period of time is greater than the threshold period, deleting the identity of the computer software application.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein determining, at the time instant, that the period of time is greater than the threshold period comprises:
 associating a clock with the computer software application; and   determining the period of time using the clock.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 receiving a subsequent input to present a different user interface that includes different content obtained by another computer software application that is similar to the computer software application;   automatically and without user intervention, executing the other computer software application to obtain the different content; and   displaying the different content in the different user interface.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising determining that the other computer software application is similar to the computer software application based on at least one of a data object model (DOM) structure of content presented in the user interface, an identifier of the DOM structure of the content presented in the user interface, or a combination of first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that references the content presented in the user interface, a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type of the computer software application, and a second URL that references the computer software application. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the content is visual content that includes a sequence of images, wherein the image representative of the content to be presented in the portion is included in the sequence. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein displaying the obtained content in the user interface comprises displaying the visual content beginning at the image. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein executing the computer software application to obtain the content comprises executing the computer software application to obtain each image of the sequence. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein identifying the image representative of the content comprises:
 identifying an image of the sequence that satisfies a threshold value; and   providing the identified image that satisfies the threshold value as the image representative of the content.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 determining that the image of the sequence does not satisfy the threshold value;   obtaining a next image of the sequence; and   determining if the next image of the sequence satisfies the threshold value.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein identifying the image of the sequence that satisfies the threshold value comprises determining if the image of the sequence satisfies the threshold value by:
 identifying pixels included in the image;   comparing each pixel with each adjacent pixel to determine a difference in image parameters associated with each pixel and each adjacent pixel;   aggregating differences associated with the pixels included in the image; and   determining if the differences satisfy the threshold value.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein comparing each pixel with each adjacent pixel to determine the difference in image parameters associated with each pixel and each adjacent pixel comprises overlaying a sampling grid over the pixels included in the image. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining a size of a portion of the user interface in which the content is to be presented; and   displaying, in the user interface, the object selectable to present the content obtained by executing the computer software application either automatically or responsive to user input based on the size of the portion relative to a size of the user interface.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is less than a threshold size; and   in response to determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is less than the threshold size, displaying the selectable object upon detecting a selection of the portion of the user interface.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein detecting the selection of the portion of the user interface comprises detecting at least one of a mouse-over event, or a mouse-move event, or a mouse-out event over the portion of the user interface. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is greater than the threshold size;   in response to determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is greater than the threshold size, automatically displaying the selectable object without user interaction within the user interface.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the computer software application is a plug-in executing in the user interface. 
     
     
         21 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
 receiving input to present a user interface that includes content obtained by executing a plug-in;   in response to receiving the input:
 executing the plug-in to obtain the content, 
 identifying, from the content, an image representative of the content, and 
 terminating an execution of the plug-in upon identifying the image representative of the content; and 
   displaying, in the user interface, the image representative of the content.   
     
     
         22 . The medium of  claim 21 , the operations further comprising:
 displaying, in the user interface, an object selectable to present the content obtained by executing the plug-in;   receiving a selection of the object; and   in response to receiving the selection of the object:
 re-instantiating the execution of the plug-in to obtain the content, and 
 displaying the obtained content in the user interface in place of the image. 
   
     
     
         23 . The medium of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 detecting a selection of a location on the image;   re-instantiating the execution of the plug-in to obtain the content in response to detecting the selection;   implementing a pass-through of the selection of the location after a period of time has expired, wherein the period of time is sufficient for at least a portion of the content to be obtained by the plug-in and displayed in the user interface in place of the image.   
     
     
         24 . The medium of  claim 22 , the operations further comprising:
 in response to receiving the selection of the object, storing an identity of the plug-in;   receiving a subsequent input to present a different user interface that includes different content obtained by executing the plug-in;   automatically and without user intervention, executing the plug-in to obtain the different content; and   displaying the different content in the different user interface.   
     
     
         25 . The medium of  claim 24 , the operations further comprising:
 determining, at a time instant, that a period of time that has elapsed from a time of storing the identity of the plug-in to the time instant is greater than a threshold period; and   in response to determining that the period of time is greater than the threshold period, deleting the identity of the plug-in.   
     
     
         26 . The medium of  claim 25 , wherein determining, at the time instant, that the period of time is greater than the threshold period comprises:
 associating a clock with the plug-in; and   determining the period of time using the clock.   
     
     
         27 . The medium of  claim 22 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving a subsequent input to present a different user interface that includes different content obtained by another plug-in that is similar to the plug-in;   automatically and without user intervention, executing the other plug-in to obtain the different content; and   displaying the different content in the different user interface.   
     
     
         28 . The medium of  claim 27 , the operations further comprising determining that the other plug-in is similar to the plug-in based on at least one of a data object model (DOM) structure of content presented in the user interface, an identifier of the DOM structure of the content presented in the user interface, or a combination of first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that references the content presented in the user interface, a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type of the computer software application, and a second URL that references the plug-in. 
     
     
         29 . The medium of  claim 21 , wherein the content is video content that includes a sequence of images, and wherein the image representative of the content to be presented in the portion is included in the sequence. 
     
     
         30 . The medium of  claim 29 , wherein displaying the obtained content in the user interface comprises displaying the video content beginning at the image, and wherein executing the plug-in to obtain the content comprises executing the plug-in to obtain each image of the sequence. 
     
     
         31 . A system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
 receiving input to present a user interface that includes content obtained by executing a computer software application; 
   in response to receiving the input:
 executing the computer software application to obtain the content, 
 identifying, from the content, an image representative of the content, and 
 terminating an execution of the computer software application upon identifying the image representative of the content; 
   displaying, in the user interface, the image representative of the content;   displaying, in the user interface, an object selectable to present the content obtained by executing the computer software application;   receiving a selection of the object or the image; and   in response to receiving the selection of the object or the image:
 re-instantiating the execution of the computer software application to obtain the content, and 
 displaying the obtained content in the user interface in place of the image. 
   
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein identifying the image representative of the content comprises:
 identifying an image of the sequence that satisfies a threshold value; and   providing the identified image that satisfies the threshold value as the image representative of the content.   
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 32 , the operations further comprising:
 determining that the image of the sequence does not satisfy the threshold value;   obtaining a next image of the sequence; and   determining if the next image of the sequence satisfies the threshold value.   
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein identifying the image of the sequence that satisfies the threshold value comprises determining if the image of the sequence satisfies the threshold value by:
 identifying pixels included in the image;   comparing each pixel with each adjacent pixel to determine a difference in image parameters associated with each pixel and each adjacent pixel;   aggregating differences associated with the pixels included in the image; and   determining if the differences satisfy the threshold value.   
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 34 , wherein comparing each pixel with each adjacent pixel to determine the difference in image parameters associated with each pixel and each adjacent pixel comprises overlaying a sampling grid over the pixels included in the image. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 31 , the operations further comprising:
 determining a size of a portion of the user interface in which the content is to be presented; and   displaying, in the user interface, the object selectable to present the content obtained by executing the computer software application either automatically or responsive to user input based on the size of the portion relative to a size of the user interface.   
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 36 , the operations further comprising:
 determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is less than a threshold size; and   in response to determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is less than the threshold size, displaying the selectable object upon detecting a selection of the portion of the user interface.   
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 37 , wherein detecting the selection of the portion of the user interface comprises detecting a mouse-move event over the portion of the user interface. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 36 , the operations further comprising:
 determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is greater than the threshold size;   in response to determining that the size of the portion relative to the size of the user interface is greater than the threshold size, automatically displaying the selectable object without user interaction with the user interface.   
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the computer software application is a plug-in executing in the user interface.
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